The Innkeeper

Chapter 2353: True damage

"This is madness!" roared the black dragon as he used his Dragon’s Might like a literal shield, protecting himself as he retreated.

"This is exposure therapy!" Lex responded as he rapidly absorbed the strange ’aura’ attacking them!

Lex referred to the thing attacking them as ’aura’ because he had no other word for it. Calling it some kind of forcefield might also be applicable, but it still didn’t sound right.

They were on the hunt for Dao Material, which naturally grew in the areas of the Gilded Hollow that were filled with the most valuable and high quality resources. The transition from an area filled with resources at a certain cultivation level to the next one was a gradual change, and not an abrupt one.

Thus, it was between the regions of Celestial level resources and Dao level resources where Lex could harvest Dao materials without encountering full, Dao level obstacles. The list of resources he had gone through - the thousands upon thousands of Dao materials he’d had to filter out - were all found in this region where the resources had begun to transition to a higher level, with the relative danger of it not quite catching up.

It was still absurdly dangerous!

Lex and the black dragon were the only ones who had ventured out, mainly because the number or residents in the stronghold who dared risk exiting were too few. Besides, Lex didn’t particularly need any help. Even the black dragon only came because he himself wanted to harvest some valuable resources, and this was an opportunity of a lifetime.

Although the dragon wasn’t too familiar with Lex himself, since he had the Fortune Lords endorsement, he was the ideal partner for these excursions.

Now, amidst the life-threatening madness they were experiencing, the black dragon was more confident than ever before about this choice!

It had been years since they left, and there were a mere 20 miles (32 km), or 105,600 footlong sandwiches, between their current location and the Dao material known as Memory of Rust! Barring their path, however, was an invisible, untouchable thing that attacked them at a fixed, consistent pace, ignoring all defenses to exact True damage - a concept Lex had only encountered in games and not in real life.

It sounded like radiation of some kind, except that there was no radiation. There was no forcefield, no aura, no magical, corrosive, microscopic pollen or evil sentient wind of some kind. No, whatever was attacking them was a form of existence that neither Lex nor the black dragon had encountered.

Thus, as common sense demanded, the black dragon sought to protect himself. But keeping up with the tradition of not acting as one would expect, instead of defending, Lex began to absorb whatever it was into his necklace!

The attacking thing was not at the Dao level, which is why Lex dared to do such a thing. Only by absorbing it and integrating it into the fake realm Lex was creating could he study it and discover what it was.

Such nonchalance towards possible death and injury filled the black dragon with excitement, causing him to break out into laughter as he stood behind Lex, using him as a necklace shaped shield.

"Do you have any idea what this thing is?" the black dragon asked, plucking off the shattered scales from his body so that new ones would have a place to grow.

"Not at all. True damage shouldn’t be a thing - it doesn’t make sense," responded as he healed himself faster than the rate at which he was suffering injury. "I mean, if the attacker is considerably stronger than the target, then the attack itself automatically becomes a form of True damage. But over here, I can feel that the source of this offense is actually weaker than me, meaning it can’t even be considered to be at the peak of the Heaven Immortal realm! I’m really curious to see what is causing this."

The dragon laughed as a certain thrill filled his body - this dance with danger and death was something he had never felt before, simply because anyone inside the Gilded Hollow who was a risk taker was dead. Self preservation was the theme of life in the Hollow, so such behavior was literally something he’d never conceived of before!

"Yes, let’s go towards the mysterious thing trying to kill us!" he said as he followed Lex, diverting slightly from their original destination.

The closer they got, the more intense the damage became, to the point where the black dragon had to stop following Lex, much to his dismay. Despite being in the middle of the Celestial Immortal realm, the black dragon’s defense was weaker than Lex’s! It was quite humiliating.

In all fairness, black dragons were better known for their offense than defense.

Lex continued walking until he encountered a small cave which seemed to be the source of the issue. He raised an eyebrow for even though right now, the laws of his universe seemed to be dominating the Gilded Hollow, that seemed not to be the case inside the cave!

Lex frowned and slowly extended a wisp of his spirit sense inside the cave, using the technique taught to him by Mithon, but it seemed not to work for him. The moment he touched the boundary of the wall, his spirit sense evaporated completely, causing a minor injury to his spirit.

For a moment, Lex thought that the source of the True damage were the laws of Pentagal, but he quickly dismissed that thought. While the laws of Pentagal, which seemed present inside the cave, had harmed him, the laws were limited to the cave itself. The thing that was coming outside the cave could survive even in the laws of his universe, so it had to be something else entirely.

Lex thought out about the situation for a moment. He could see that there was something akin to a formation, etched within the walls of the cave, which kept the laws of Pentagal anchored within it. If he were to destroy that, he’d be able to enter the cave, but that may destroy the source of the attack as well.

He felt determined to find some way to enter the cave and explore it, for if Lex could somehow replicate the feat of True damage... he could not even imagine just how powerful he could become!

Lex retreated from the mouth of the cave and went back to the black dragon, explaining the situation to him.

"Do you have any ideas about how I can enter without disrupting the formation?" Lex asked, causing the black dragon to frown for a moment before he took something out from a spatial tool.

"I will use a method from the Fortune Lord, and you can fuel it using your own energy. Just make sure it doesn’t go out, and you should be able to enter without an issue."